Sports Franchises Research Articles

New York, New York: A Financial History of Two Baseball Teams

In 2012, the New York Mets turned fifty. In March of that year, Forbes magazine published their annual valuations of Major League Baseball (MLB) franchises. They estimated the New York Mets to be worth $719 million and the Yankees $1.85 billion. The value of the Yankees franchise is second only to that of the Dallas Cowboys ($2.1 billion) among North American team sports franchises. (1) In 2011, the Yankees, boasting a roster studded with All-Stars earning a collective $210 million, won the American League Eastern Division title with a record of 97-65. The Mets, meanwhile, finished in fourth place, twenty-five games behind the Phillies. The billion-dollar difference in franchise value between the teams is the greatest it has ever been in the fifty-year existence of the Mets. This is a story about the value of these two franchises. How do they compare over time, and why do they differ by so much? Why do two teams, both located in the biggest baseball market in the country, seem to have experienced such different fates? THE METS AND YANKEES IN NEW YORK On April 11, 1962, the New York Mets made their inauspicious debut, losing to the St. Louis Cardinals, 11-4. Twelve days later, after an 0-9 start, they earned their first victory. Meanwhile, across town the defending World Series champion Yankees opened the season with a victory. The Mets went on to one of the worst seasons in MLB history in 1962, while the Yankees went on to win another World Series title. (2) The history of the New York Mets really begins with the departure of the Giants and Dodgers after the 1957 season. The void left by the transfer of these two NL squads to California begged to be filled. In fact, it was almost filled by another league altogether--the Continental League. The Mets and the Houston Astros were expansion franchises awarded in an effort to thwart the realization of that league. The early Mets were a reflection of the crosstown Yankees, in no small part due to the hiring of disgruntled former Yankee general manager George Weiss as club president. Weiss's hiring was a result of the reluctance of principal owner Joan Payson to meet the demands of first choice Branch Rickey. Ironically, Rickey was the mastermind behind the Continental League that spawned the Mets. Other Yankee personnel to join the Mets included Johnny Murphy, Gil McDougald, Whitey Herzog, and the coup de grace, manager Casey Stengel, the man who came to personify the early Mets. (3) As an expansion franchise, the Mets were certain not to challenge the defending National League champion Cincinnati Reds, so they had to attract fans in some other way. The hiring of the eccentric Stengel was one such move. The Mets stocked their early roster with recognizable names as another way to draw fans to the park. They had aging stars Gil Hodges, Richie Ashburn, Gus Bell, and Gene Woodling, as well as former Brooklyn favorites Charlie Neal, Don Zimmer, Roger Craig, and Clem Labine. Unfortunately, they had to play their first two seasons in the crumbling Polo Grounds, until Shea Stadium could be completed in time for the 1964 season. The 1962 Mets are legendary for their incompetence. They set an MLB record for losses, with a 40-120 record, and en route endured performances from legendary players such as Rod Kanehl, who could play every position but none of them well, and catcher Choo Choo Coleman, whose main skill was chasing passed balls. Shortstop Elio Chacon's lack of English extended to I've got it, resulting in frequent collisions with other players. And then there was Mary Throneberry, the first baseman whose fielding and base-running faux pas became the most enduring emblem of the early Mets. (4) The Mets lost more than one hundred games in five of their first six seasons. Despite this level of futility, however, attendance at Mets games rose dramatically beginning in 1964, when they abandoned the Polo Grounds and started playing at Shea Stadium. …

Third and long: Building a sport club brand following a franchise failure

This research explores what happens when a new sport franchise is granted in a city that has experienced previous franchise failure within the same professional sport league and, in particular, the impact on building the new brand. Through qualitative research with the main stakeholders of the new franchise, this research determines that, while history is an important component to embrace, a new, revised approach that balances both history and a more contemporary sport platform are thought to be significant ingredients towards establishing consumer interest and loyalty within the local marketplace. The findings point to the importance of maintaining semblance to that of colour and star athletes, while demonstrating the impact that a new stadium can have on fan interest.

Measuring the effectiveness of tweeted contents for local professional sports franchises

Social media has become an effective marketing communication tool in business (Dodds, P. S., Harris, K. D., K. I. M., Bliss, C. A., & Danforth, C. M., 2011). Social media marketing provides information on how to use social media tools and platforms to create and foster communities and relationships. Understanding what tools are available and how to use them effectively is key to success in social media marketing. Businesses also need to understand how they can reach out to their customers and, more importantly, why they need to reach out to their customers. The main purpose of this current study is two fold: 1) To develop a formula to measure the effectiveness of tweeted contents for local professional sports franchises, and 2) To develop a new instrumental scale to measure the perceived satisfaction of tweeted contents. College students in a sport management class at a college in the Northwestern United States were recruited to participate in this study. During a class session focused on Technology in Sport students were informed about the general purpose of the study and asked to complete the Perceived Satisfaction of Twitter Contents (PSTC) and demographics questionnaires. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was utilized to test if PSTC level differed by 3 Spokane-based sports franchises. The results found a significant difference on PSTC level by teams, F(2, 55) = 3.88, p=.027. In order to find out where the difference occurred, a Post-Hoc test (Tukey) was conducted. It found that PSTC level for Spokane Chiefs (M = 17.95, SD = 2.06) was significantly higher than that of Spokane Indians (M = 16.10, SD = 2.20) with p = .02. No other differences were found.

Economic Exploitation in Intercollegiate Athletics

This paper investigates philosophically the question of whether or not college and university athletes in the USA are doing something morally wrong should they terminate their college or university experience prior to graduation and enter the professional athletic ranks. Various moral arguments are brought to bear in order to attempt to shed light on this issue. One reason why such athletes ‘turn professional’ before they graduate is the perceived economic exploitation they experience as essentially underpaid workers earning much revenue for their respective institutions. But who is exploiting whom here? Is it just student athletes who are exploited by the system? I expand the reasoning about the exploitation of intercollegiate athletics to include not just student athletes, but their supporting colleges and universities. In the end, it is proposed that the National Collegiate Athletic Association and similar academically related athletic agencies should permit and encourage each of their constituent institutions as a matter of policy to protect themselves (and their supporting taxpayers, in the cases of public institutions) contractually from economic exploitation by professional sports franchises. Thus the question of student athletes leaving college for professional sports contracts has hidden beneath it questions of private professional sports franchises’ exploitation of the institutions with which such student athletes are affiliated.

The Interactive Effect of Turnover and Task Interdependence on Performance in High Performance Strategic Work Teams: Evidence in the NFL

The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the interactive effect of turnover and task interdependence on performance in high performance strategic work teams. Based on pervious research, we contend that turnover will have a negative effect on team performance and this effect will be more pronounced as teams perform highly interdependent tasks. Given the integral role human resources play in the success or failure of a professional sports franchise, this setting provides an ideal opportunity for examining various human resource issues. Using longitudinal data from the National Football League (NFL), we empirically test 1) the effect of player turnover on NFL team performance (i.e., wins and losses in the subsequent year), and 2) the difference in team performance as based on the high/low task interdependence of the team. Findings suggest a negative impact of turnover on organizational performance, regardless of the interdependent nature of high performance strategic work team tasks. In addition, the negative influence of turnover is enhanced by the task interdependence within a team.

A Bad Case of ‘Peanut Envy’: Concessions Markets and Monopoly Power at Chicago’s United Center

In recent decades, sports franchises have exploited their privileged relationship to the state in order to expand the scope of their local monopoly powers. This article examines efforts by the owners of the United Center, the home arena of the Chicago Bulls and Chicago Blackhawks, to eliminate competition from local peanut vendors. The owners benefited from court rulings rejecting the legitimacy of government intervention in local markets at the same time that they successfully lobbied municipal politicians to intervene on their behalf by passing anti-vendor legislation. This story not only offers a case study in how teams’ monopolistic privilege has extended to concessions markets, but also contributes to a broader understanding of how the neoliberal state works to minimize risk and maximize profitability for large-scale real estate investments like sports arenas. The methodological approach is interdisciplinary, drawing on legal and business history, urban geography and sociology, and radical political economy.

Time Allocation of Sales Activities in Professional Sport Organizations

The sale of tickets, premium seating, and sponsorship is fundamental to the financial viability of professional sport organizations. With ticket sales as the most important source of local revenue for most sport organizations and the sale of premium suites and sponsorships unshared amongst other franchises (Smith & Roy, 2011; Howard & Crompton, 2004), recruiting, training, and retaining high quality salespeople is an important managerial function of professional sport franchises (Irwin, Sutton, & McCarthy, 2008; Pierce, Petersen, Clavio, & Meadows, in press). Although researchers have examined sales activities in many industries, little research exists on how salespeople utilize their time in the sport industry. Sport salespeople have a variety of responsibilities, from cold calling to working on game day (Pierce et al., in press). However, sales activities might differ based on salesperson characteristics such as gender and experience, or by organization based on level of competition or what is being sold. The purpose of this study was to determine how much time sport sales personnel spend on a variety of sales tasks, examine differences between types of sales employees, and determine if time spent on sales tasks predicts job performance or satisfaction. 1 Time Allocation of Sales Activities in Professional Sport 1 Pierce et al.: Time Allocation of Sales Activities Published by Digital Commons @ Kent State University Libraries, 2013 Pierce, Peterson & Lee Literature Review Frederick Taylor‟s pioneering essay of 1911, The Principles of Scientific Management, formed the foundation of time and motion study as a gateway to the improvement of worker practices (Bell, 2011). Three key concepts encapsulated the approach of scientific management including: the study and analysis of work in order to discover the best way and proper time to perform a job, a scientific process for selecting and training the workforce, and disciplined work performance by labor coupled with analysis and control by management (Covell et al., 2007). The application of the tenants of Taylor‟s scientific management to the area of sales was quickly established by Charles Hoyt who published his text Scientific Sales Management in 1912 (LaLonde & Morrison, 1967). Despite the early and expanding work related to the application of scientific management concepts to the sales process, there has been no documented study of the time allocation of sales tasks and activities specific to the sport industry setting. Salespeople have a number of job duties and responsibilities, and several prior studies have sought to identify and classify these tasks. Moncrief (1986) created the first comprehensive inventory of sales activities that was applied in the setting of selling industrial products. Additional research by Moncrief, Marshall, and Lassk (2006) updated this inventory and conducted a factor analysis that identified twelve dimensions of selling, including relationship selling, promotional activities and sales service, entertaining, prospecting, computer, travel, training/recruiting, delivery, product support, educational activities, office, and channel support. Beck and Knutson (2006) used a similar methodology, but applied it to the hotel industry, and Authors (in review) performed an exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis of sport sales activities. Sales activities within the sport industry have been examined primarily through content analysis of sport sales position announcements. Pierce et al. (2012) performed a content analysis of 335 ticket sales and service position announcements over a sixmonth time frame. Six of the eighteen job responsibilities, which included cold calling, customer service, prospecting, database

“Motor City” rebound? Sport as a catalyst to reviving downtown Detroit: A case study

Major urban cities across the United States have strategically considered sport-based economic development. This investigation examined the role that sport played in revitalization of downtown Detroit, Michigan, the 18th largest city in the United States. Detroit is home to four professional sport franchises, three of which have sport facilities anchored in downtown. Historically, Detroit has been known for its role in the global automobile industry and the prowess of its professional sport teams. Due to Detroit’s major demographic and economic losses due to the downturn of the automobile industry, viable strategic options for sustaining the economy are needed. This case study utilized interviews with an expert panel of economic development stakeholders. Semistructured questions were used to facilitate the interview. From the interviews, three themes emerged: (1) sport facilities and franchises as an economic development catalyst of downtown; (2) sport’s role in enhancing the image of downtown; and (3) challenges to the role of sport in the revitalization of downtown Detroit. Important findings of the study included: (1) sport plays a role in driving the economy of downtown Detroit; (2) sport facilities and their programming are important attractions for downtown revitalization in Detroit; and (3) sport cannot solely sustain the economy in the city nor the downtown area and its use as an economic development tool must be considered cautiously.

Sports Franchises, Events, and City Livability: An Examination of Spectator Sports and Crime Rates

AbstractWe estimate the impact of sporting events and franchises on local crime rates using the technique developed in Arellano and Bond (2001). For events, we consider the presence of Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association, National Football League and National Hockey League franchises as well as whether a city held one of the respective championships, the Olympics, or World Cup matches. We find little to no evidence that sporting events or franchises are correlated with changes in either property or violent crime with two notable exceptions. The Olympics Games are associated with roughly a 10 per cent increase in property crimes while the Super Bowl is associated with a 2.5 per cent decrease in violent crime. On the whole, however, the presence of spectator sports does not seem to automatically carry with it any improvements in citywide criminal behaviour.

Calgary Flames: a case study in an entrepreneurial sport franchise

The Calgary Flames play in the National Hockey League. To increase their profits, they either decrease their expenses or increase their revenues (or a combination of both). The ability for an NHL team to decrease expenses under the collective bargaining agreement is somewhat limited, while increasing revenues is not. Thus, we have attempted to understand how the Calgary Flames have used an entrepreneurial attitude to increase net income throughout their history.

Accuracy of professional sports drafts in predicting career potential

The forecasting of talented players is a crucial aspect of building a successful sports franchise and professional sports invest significant resources in making player choices in sport drafts. The current study examined the relationship between career performance (i.e. games played) and draft round for the National Football League, National Hockey League, National Basketball League, and Major League Baseball for players drafted from 1980 to 1989 (n = 4874) against the assumption of a linear relationship between performance and draft round (i.e. that players with the most potential will be selected before players of lower potential). A two-step analysis revealed significant differences in games played across draft rounds (step 1) and a significant negative relationship between draft round and games played (step 2); however, the amount of variance accounted for was relatively low (less than 17%). Results highlight the challenges of accurately evaluating amateur talent.

Outtakes and Outrage: The Means and Ends of Suicide Terror

Outtakes and Outrage: The Means and Ends of Suicide Terror Samuel Thomas (bio) Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. —Gospel of Mark, 9:24 For perverse unreason has its own logical processes. —Joseph Conrad, The Secret Agent In his introduction to The Plague of Fantasies, Slavoj Žižek attempts a brief précis of “the antagonisms which characterize our epoch.” Writing just before the most far-reaching and spectacular phase of the Age of Terror, and thus with some prescience, he begins to delineate some of the specific processes that have been brought to their extreme—often to the point of their collapse and/or dialectical reversal—in our contemporary “audiovisual media.” Among the numerous factors in play here, the tension between “world market globalization” and the assertion of various historical “particularisms” (ethnic, religious, national, linguistic) stands out as particularly significant in that it both binds together and immediately transcends the audiovisual focus of Žižek’s project (1). Borrowing from Raymond Williams’s well-worn formula of “epochal analysis,” we can say that it extends into a bewildering variety of “dominant, residual and emergent” cultural forms (121). The processes through which the boundaries of the nation-state have become increasingly [End Page 425] porous and pliable—penetrated by networks of influence as diverse as the International Monetary Fund, tourism, flu viruses, drug trafficking, sports franchises, and Al Qaeda—are matched by a series of appeals to origins and claims to self-determination, by the pull toward localized or sovereign political units and by the solidification of various so-called fundamentalisms. In fact, such is the intimate relationship between the two sides of this antagonism, which erupted to such spectacular effect in the Event of 9/11; it is often difficult (or just plain wrong) to separate them out. This, as Žižek contends, has placed many of the “paradigmatic critical procedure[s]” forged in “the good old days of traditional Ideologiekritik” under considerable strain (Plague 1). And in the broadest possible terms, it is hard to argue. It requires no special kind of radicalism nor, for that matter, postmodern ennui to claim that the legitimacy of our modes of analysis have been called into question (and also, for better or worse, reanimated) by these violent upheavals in the contemporary life-world. I therefore begin in this rather expansive fashion with the opposite approach implied—a Žižekian switchover, if you will, a series of relays between the general and the particular, between the global and the local, between the macropolitics of the post-9/11 world and the micropolitics of the fictional text. More straightforwardly, I begin in this fashion because my topic demands it: the representation of suicide bombing and/or jihadist martyrdom; the theory and practice, as it were, of what Alex Houen has usefully termed “sacrificial militancy” (“Sacrificial Militancy” 113). Suicide bombing, in all its diverse and terrible forms, is a phenomenon that vividly dramatizes the most destructive possibilities of this interface between global and local forces, and for scholars of contemporary fiction, it is also the source of a significant outgrowth in discursive/creative practices. One of the underlying aims of my discussion here is to demonstrate that any critical treatment of this topic, whether directly or indirectly enmeshed in cultural politics after 9/11, must necessarily confront the simultaneous blurring and (re)inscription of boundaries that the suicide attack exemplifies in extremis. This task is made all the more acute if we consider the proposition that the totality of global capitalism itself can be understood as developing from apparently closed, nationalistic forms of collective identity—an argument, for example, that underpins much of John Gray’s Al Qaeda and What it Means to be Modern. The undisclosed symmetries between, say, laissez-fare corporate economics and the informal hawala banking systems that help to sustain the cross-continental operations of terrorist cells provide a stern rebuke to any crudely sketched and insidiously conservative clash of civilizations—with Samuel Huntington’s thesis famously reenergized in the [End Page 426] aftermath of 9/11—and to the “stupefying” belief that “modernity,” and thus capitalism, “is a single condition” (1). Indeed, various elements of Gray’s thought...

Mega-Events: Is Baylor Football to Waco What the Super Bowl is to Houston?

Using monthly data describing 23 cities in Texas from January, 1990, through December, 2008, the net impacts of various professional and collegiate sporting events on sales tax revenues are estimated. Contrary to the rhetoric offered by those who argue in favor of public subsidies to host professional sports franchises and mega-events, the authors find that regular season and many postseason games actually correspond with net decreases in economic activity in the host city, from which we infer that a professional sports franchise generates considerable substitution effects for the local population. The authors find that college football games have a positive impact on local host-city tax revenues and that the relative impact of a season of college football might be roughly equivalent to the relative impact of the Super Bowl.

Major League Baseball Anti-Trust Immunity: Examining the Legal and Financial Implications of Relocation Rules

Major League Baseball (MLB) rules restrict the movement of any franchise into another’s territory. These territorial rules are designed to protect each team’s potential local revenue sources as well as to provide stability throughout the league. Recently, Major League Baseball approved financial compensation for the Washington Nationals move into the Baltimore Orioles’ territory – primarily because it was in the best interest of MLB even though it hurt the Orioles. However, the Oakland Athletics were unable to even negotiate a potential compensation plan for a move into the San Francisco Giants territory, despite the apparent financial benefit the move could have provided for every other league franchise. The Athletics are already located within 15 miles of the Giants, and their potential 40 mile move to San Jose, California would not add a new team to the San Francisco Bay Area; rather, it would simply be a move of a current team to a different location within the metropolitan area. The refusal of the Giants or MLB to negotiate a potential compromise has kept the Oakland Athletics in a substandard facility and has led to their potential move to Fremont, CA – a less desirable location than San Jose.This paper investigates the legal, policy, and financial considerations concerning Major League Baseball’s territorial rules. Specifically, it addresses antitrust law as it pertains to American professional sport, relative sport franchise relocation cases, financial arguments why leagues desire to control relocation, financial components of MLB’s current Collective Bargaining Agreement, and the legal and financial impact of a challenge to MLB’s territorial rules – an option the Oakland Athletic initially investigated prior to their decision to pursue a potential move to Fremont.

Stakeholder influence strategies in bidding for a professional sport franchise license

This paper examines an application for a franchise license in Australia's professional rugby league competition, the National Rugby League (NRL). Frooman's (1999) typology of stakeholder influence strategies is used to analyse the negotiation of resource relationships between a Gold Coast franchise bid team and its key stakeholders. Primary data came from 12 interviews with nine key actors in the bid process; these were buttressed by secondary data. Frooman's typology provided a useful heuristic, but did not fully account for the critical role of firm legitimacy in stakeholders’ choice of influence strategies. The bid team negotiated stakeholders’ initial direct withholding strategies by creating access to the intangible resource of legitimacy. This subsequently provided access to material resources such as finance, a new stadium, and, ultimately, a franchise license. The findings are of note to practitioners and scholars interested professional sport and stakeholder theory.

TAX REVISIONS OF 2004 AND PRO SPORTS TEAM OWNERSHIP

I. INTRODUCTION In 1946, Major League Baseball (MLB) entrepreneur Bill Veeck convinced the IRS that the of players on his newly acquired Cleveland Indians was a depreciable asset (Veeck, 1962). Okner's (1974) assessment of this roster depreciation allowance (RDA) first appeared nearly 30 yr later. The point of his work, and subsequent work after nearly another 20 yr by Quirk and Fort (1992), was to elucidate the illogical foundations and ongoing consequences of the RDA. Despite these flaws, the RDA has endured and its recent treatment under the tax revisions of 2004, effective 2005, is the subject of this paper. Under previous tax laws established in 1976, from 1977 to 2004, sports team owners were allowed to treat 50% of the team purchase price as an asset depreciable over no more than 5 yr, what we refer to as the 50/5 Rule. The 2004 revision set the RDA at 100% of the purchase price depreciable over no more than 15 yr, what we will refer to as the Rule. All interested parties agreed that administrative enforcement costs would be driven to zero because, under the lavish percentage and depreciation period of the 100/15 Rule, no real legal challenges would be raised. Controversy over this revision did arise over the impacts on both team owner tax payments and team values. Congressional supporters argued that owners would pay more taxes. A report by the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation said the revisions would owner tax bills $381 million over 10 years. Industry experts disagreed, stating flatly that the revisions would generally lower tax payments by owners (Wilson, 2004, p. 2). To round out the controversy completely, a lobbyist-spokesman for MLB stated that tax payments would remain unchanged (Wilson, 2004, p. 3). Turning to franchise values, members of Congress were silent but the same industry experts claimed the RDA revisions would raise the capital of sports franchises. Lehman Brothers publicly stated that the revisions would add about 5% to sports team across all leagues. Raymond James & Associates more vaguely agreed that team would increase (Wilson, 2004, p. 3). League officials, their lobbyists, and team owners were much less committal. They agreed there would be some advantages but chose instead to downplay the tax advantages and focus on the issue of owners suffering true net operating losses (Rovell, 2004, p. 1). Both Jeff Smulyan, previous owner of MLB's Seattle Mariners, and David Samson, President of MLB's Florida Marlins, voiced that the benefits of depreciation are small consolation for owners facing true operating losses. Ted Leonsis, owner of the NHL's Washington Capitals, said, I look forward to the day where (write-offs are) an issue for me. While its public statements downplayed the value of the RDA, MLB actively lobbied for the revisions and the National Football League (NFL) also publicly supported them. The National Basketball Association (NBA) and National Hockey League (NHL) remained neutral. Ostensibly, the reason for this lobbying was more about saving on legal fees than on raising franchise values, William H. Schweitzer, a managing partner of the Washington law firm that promoted the revisions for MLB, saying they would have a slightly positive impact, varying from club to club. The revisions would eliminate IRS disputes without significantly changing taxes. Indeed, he offered that MLB had not specifically evaluated how the revisions would affect franchise (Wilson, 2004, p. 3). We present a model of the RDA capable of sorting out these conflicting opinions. The model shows the impact of the RDA on team value and the impact of changes in the RDA on team and taxes paid by owners. We hold all of team ownership constant and allow owners to either hold the team or sell it after the RDA depreciation period expires. Thus, we are able to (1) show the value of the RDA in terms of team operating profits, (2) provide comparative statics results for parameters of the RDA, (3) explore the role of the other values held constant, and (4) apply our findings to the controversy just detailed. …

Public Subsidies and the Location and Pricing of Sports

Using public choice analysis, we determine how government subsidies affect location and pricing decisions of sports teams. We explain how voter referendums can create suboptimal outcomes for local communities and identify winners and losers in sport team subsidies. Subsidy bidding leads to higher subsidies and fewer sport franchises but does not alter team location. Sport subsidies generate additional revenue for owners and players at taxpayer expense, and non‐fan taxpayers subsidize both the team and fans. To increase political support for subsidies, teams lower ticket prices below the apparent profit‐maximizing level, which may cause inelastic ticket prices and ticket shortages.

Competition and Cooperation between Professional Sports Franchises: The Impact on Ticket Prices

An important issue in many antitrust lawsuits involving professional sports leagues and their member teams is the extent to which franchises within the same, and across different, professional sports leagues compete with one another for fans and advertisers. Complicating the issue is the fact that some sports franchises also cooperate with other franchises in the same or different leagues by, for example, participating in a joint venture to build and operate the stadium in which they will play their games or a regional sports network joint venture to televise their games. An extreme form of cooperation is common ownership: some franchises in different sports leagues have common ownership. This study investigates the impact of competition and cooperation among the franchises of the four major professional sports leagues (i.e., the National Football League, National Basketball Association, National Hockey League, and Major League Baseball) on ticket prices for the 2008 season. The regression results suggest that the existence of one or more rival sports franchises in the same metropolitan area does not have a statistically significant impact on ticket prices. On the other hand, there is at best weak evidence that cooperation between sports franchises impacts ticket prices. These findings are consistent with a number of alternative hypotheses.

SportsCentral as Winner or Loser? Centralcasting as Strategy for Efficient Local Sportscast Production

The amount of time dedicated to sports coverage in local news has decreased substantially in recent years. In fact, some networks have eliminated traditional sports segments or outsourced them to national organizations. The now defunct Sinclair Broadcast Group’s SportsCentral represented a cost-efficient way to produce local sports segments in multiple media markets, and this study sought to understand how SportsCentral broadcasts compared with traditional broadcasts in 3 markets. An analysis of SportsCentral segments over a 17-month period in the Birmingham, AL; Oklahoma City; and Tampa–St. Petersburg markets showed that traditional sportscasts provided more local sports coverage than shows airing SportsCentral. While relying more heavily on satellite-generated content, sportscasts using SportsCentral had a wider variety of stories and aired more sports feature stories and franchises than the traditional sportscast. However, local newscasts found ways to integrate sports coverage into the news broadcast to cover late-breaking or important local stories.

Estimating Local Welfare Generated by an NFL Team under Credible Threat of Relocation

This study offers the opportunity to examine the welfare contribution of the Minnesota Vikings to Minnesota households in the context of a credible threat of team relocation. We find the credibility of the threat of relocation is essential to providing unbiased estimates of welfare. This study utilizes contingent valuation methodology (CVM) and a random utility model (RUM) to analyze Minnesotans' decision‐making mechanisms for supporting a new stadium initiative. While previous studies have attempted to measure the welfare associated with a sports franchise, we develop and discuss bias that may be imparted to estimates when the researcher fails to calculate a “choke price.” Further, we develop an unbiased approach to identify welfare when respondents perceive a risk of losing the franchise. The range of welfare contribution by the Vikings to households in Minnesota is $;445.3 million to $;1,571.3 million according to a 95% confidence interval based on our study.